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An internationally competitive US electronics industry requires a well-prepared workforce.
Many community colleges and universities along the central Florida “Interstate-4 Corridor”
(Tampa-Orlando-Daytona) work with industry to offer programming in the engineering
technology/electronics field. Rapidly evolving industry demands and increasingly limited
resources have led to the establishment of an education/business alliance known as the Tech-4
High-Technology Industrial Education Consortium. Tech-4 is currently utilizing NSF-ATE
funding and over $1 million in substantially cash value industry match to enhance individualized
institutional efforts to design and deliver a collaborative, replicable Electronics Workforce
Development System. This System will maximize learning for secondary and lower-division
students through coordinated sharing of industry and educational resources.

NSF-TECH-4 Initiative

The galvanizing premise among the various industrial and academic partners within the "I-4
corridor" was the basic belief that the central section of Florida did not have the workforce in
place to support the high tech boom projected within the next 10 years. As the fourth largest
state and growing, there is virtual certainty that the counties connected to Interstate 4 will be
ideal locations for high tech firms. What was found to be missing was a unified, technical
educational support structure to meet the employment needs of such an industrial focus. The
legislatively funded Florida High Tech Corridor Council, (Fl HTCC), began to address this issue
in several ways. One of their principal action paths was the formation of the TECH-4
Educational Consortium.

After the expenditure of some organizational energy, the focus of TECH-4 Educational
Consortium was on the creation of a technical educational structure that would be compatible
with the existing community college and university system. This effort lead to a multiyear
million dollar proposal with industry match to NSF's Advanced Technology Education Division,
ATE. Grant partners are Brevard (Melbourne), Hillsborough (Tampa), Seminole (Sanford), and
Valencia (Orlando) Community Colleges; along with the University of South Florida (Tampa)
and the University of Central Florida (Orlando) and Cirent Semiconductor (Orlando). The
awarded grant crossed the boundaries of three ATE areas (Curriculum and Instructional
Materials; Teacher and Faculty Development; and Laboratory Development). Seven curriculum
modules focusing on different aspects of the electronics industry will be located across the region
to serve as collaborative resource centers. These modules and the institutions that will develop
and house the curricula are: Fluids/Pneumatics (HCC/VCC): Cleanroom/Contamination Control